I don't believe I said they failed as a company...

I said stuff like this is why I worry about feeding kibble that is now owned by P & G to my dog. Same reason I don't buy kibble from other companies that have a history of recall.

I was worried when Maple Leaf had their huge recalls and when Fresh Express recalled some of their salad bags as well. Do I buy those products now? Not as much as I used to and when I do, it's usually with some feelings of uneasiness.

I'm not exactly sure what the point of your post is...I understand all companies that deal with meat can have salmonella poisoning. Some companies more than others and some companies not at all. If I wanted to lessen the risk of contamination, wouldn't it be a better idea to go with a company with a clean(er) track record?

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Member of the "Crazy 4 Collars Clique"

Want to see the menu of a raw fed dog? Check out my blog!

Well, no. The largest, most honest company will have the most voluntary recalls. A smaller company, equally honest, will have fewer on average because they have fewer facilities. A small, dishonest company will have none. That doesn't mean the chance of contamination in any given bag of food from Company A or Company B is lower.

I think avoiding a company who engages in voluntary recalls makes gut sense but doesn't actually play the averages. Nothing is wrong with P&G's practices, so far as we know. If they had a track record of failing to recall when they should have or of poor practices that lead to contamination, then I'd agree that avoiding them would be smart.

In this case, P&G recalled all the potentially contaminated food without a single dog or person getting sick. To me, that says the company is willing to sacrifice short term profit in order to do the right thing and ensure a longer term (and more profitable) relationship of trust with its customers.

I disagree with you that this recall is a reason to avoid P&G food. That's the point of my post.

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Not all dogs can handle exposure to salmonella. Most healthy dogs can eat raw meat in the long term without getting a life-threatening infection, but they can and do get sick from raw diets (according to my ER vet who has treated raw fed dogs for salmonella crises and Dr. Nicholas Dodman of Tufts Vet School).

If you actually take cultures off all the raw chicken in a supermarket, a surprising amount of swabs will grow salmonella. That doesn't mean there's enough to cause infection in a mammal that consumes it, but it's frequently present.

Most healthy mammals, dogs and humans included, won't get sick off small amounts of exposure. Our immune systems head off the bacteria at the pass.

However, when you make a cooked kibble, you're pretty much guaranteeing that it's free from salmonella. That means it's safe for immuno-compromised people and dogs to handle and eat it (which raw isn't), and that means that those of your customers who don't want the risk of raw and purchasing your product with the understanding that it won't carry a potentially dangerous bacterium.

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Since the governement can't mandate that pet food be recalled, really all recalls are voluntary. http://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region1/10701503.pdf A major hiccup in the pet food safety chain.

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Betty and the Dallas crew


“Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.” A. France

As an aside, I just have to say that's a very well thought out and well written post. I wish I could express myself as well you do.

That's also a very sound reasoning and something I've never really thought of before, re: your first two paragraphs. I guess I always assumed a company that had no recalls would be a "better" than a company with a history of recalls, which is why I guess most of my food (meat especially) from nearby organic farms/ranches. I never really thought of it from the other side before.

I don't think we are disagreeing at all since I'm not avoiding P & G food. I know lots of people who switched the day the company bought out Natura but Ranger's still on Evo. I will continue to feed it, since that's the food he does best on, until something happens that makes me feel that he'd be better off eating something else. In the meantime, I'll just worry the way I do about everything...there's a reason "Paranoia" is my theme song!

Penny & Maggie's Mom - wow, that's unbelievable.

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Member of the "Crazy 4 Collars Clique"

Want to see the menu of a raw fed dog? Check out my blog!

Hey, thanks. Recalls give me the heebies too.

There ain't nothing better than local, organic food. The humans in the house don't eat any meat we don't personally source. However, we haven't been able to work out feeding the dogs that way yet.

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That's fascinating. It does look like the FDA has power to seize and examine food when there's a public health threat, but they can't mandate a recall. They also don't publicize their role all the time, so "voluntary" can mean that the company initiated it or that the FDA leaned on them heavily first. We don't know which it was here, though signs seem to point to responsible action on P&G's part.

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